Homeless Deaths Surge

The Washington Post
Friday, April 13, 2018

Desperate to avoid an early death, ­Michael Jenkins finally found a doctor willing to operate on his damaged liver. But Jenkins knew all along that it was the recovery that was more likely to kill him out here on the city’s streets.

Within days of the doctor creating a shunt via surgery, the 63-year-old homeless man was back in West Nashville sleeping in an abandoned van with flattened tires, a broken front-seat window and a hornet’s nest in the air vent.